Why no wings?
POSTED BY: WhoMe
UPDATED: Sunday, April 2, 2006 03:03
VIEWED: 4730
PAGE 2 of 2
Actually, I believe I was the one who referred to "Treknobabble" on that other thread, but I can hardly claim to have coined it; it's been in common parlance among SF fans since the 90's at least.
As to the shuttle wings, while being extended wouldn't serve any aerodynamic function in space, neither would it hurt anything, and I can think of a handful of functions that might be placed on them, from heat exchangers to solar collectors. Probably the only reason they retract at all is for ease in docking.
Now that ain't Treknobabble; it's just simple science & engineering knowledge; Treknobabble would be saying "They extend to improve the geometry of the warp field and boost the efficiency of the anti-graviton flow." 
"Okay, Morta. The Enterprise computer system is controlled by three primary main processing cores cross linked with a redundant melacortz ramistat and fourteen kiloquad interface modules. The core elements are based on FTL nanoprocessor units arranged into twenty-five bilateral kelilactirals with twenty of those units being slaved to the central heisenfram terminal. . . . Now this is the isopalavial interface which controls the main firomactal drive unit. . . . The ramistat kiloquad capacity is a function of the square root of the intermix ratio times the sum of the plasma injector quotient. . . " -- Commmander William Riker, "explaining" the Enterprise's computer to a rather confused ferengi.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
"Okay, Morta. The Enterprise computer system is controlled by three primary main processing cores cross linked with a redundant melacortz ramistat and fourteen kiloquad interface modules. The core elements are based on FTL nanoprocessor units arranged into twenty-five bilateral kelilactirals with twenty of those units being slaved to the central heisenfram terminal. . . . Now this is the isopalavial interface which controls the main firomactal drive unit. . . . The ramistat kiloquad capacity is a function of the square root of the intermix ratio times the sum of the plasma injector quotient. . . "
I'll be needin' that in fanboy-dummy talk please
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
You're absolutely right RocketJock, my mistake. And that was a hefty piece of Treknobabble. I gave up reading it halfway through.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Customizeable handmade baby gifts personalized by my wife! Check them out at www.baby-bobo.com. All proceeds go towards international adoption.
Leaning into the wind that used to carry me-Stavesacre
That's why I don't kiss'em on the mouth- Jayne Cobb
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Uh...to add/alter this discussion, is it me or did the shuttles get a structural revamp for the BDM, cuz I don''t recall seeing Inara's shuttle deploy wings after the escape from the Training House. Could have just missed it though...
BEB
Literature has shown us some of humanity's greatest achievements; history, some of our greatest failures -- Alun Lewis
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME